UNB Reds head coach Gardiner MacDougall directs practice at the Aitken University Centre in Fredericton, NB, on Feb. 22.Chris Donovan/The Globe and Mail
They have run out of rafters from which to hang banners at the Aitken University Centre, the home of the men’s hockey team at the University of New Brunswick. Now, instead of a banner to recognize each championship, three and four are crowded together on the same rafter.
The Varsity Reds are currently in pursuit of their 10th U Sports national championship. They have won 16 consecutive Atlantic University Sport regular-season titles, five successive league championships and 18 overall.
The architect for much of this success is Gardiner MacDougall. He is 64 and hails from Badeque, a tiny village on Prince Edward Island, and quite likely is the greatest hockey coach you have never heard of.
This is his 24th year behind the bench at UNB and over that span his teams have won 490 regular-season games, a Canadian university record. Including the playoffs, he has 606 victories, 193 losses and 18 ties, and has presided over eight of the Reds’ nine national championships, including last year.
On Friday, the Reds began a best-of-five Atlantic league playoff series at home in Fredericton against Saint Mary’s University. UNB concluded the regular season 30-0, the first time a university hockey team in Canada has gone unbeaten over 30 games. In other seasons he had teams go 27-1 and 31-1-1.
“I have been blessed to have tremendous people,” MacDougall says. “They happen to be great hockey players as well.”
On Wednesday he directed a 90-minute practice session wearing a red ball cap with a whistle at his lips and a stick in his right hand.
Team members, all of whom played at the major-junior level in the CHL, were a blur as they executed high-speed drills. They cheered for one another and pushed each other on.
“Hard work without joy is drudgery and doesn’t last,” MacDougall says. “But hard work with joy leads to high performance.”
He wakes up at 6:10 a.m., reads for 30 minutes, jogs for an hour with his 10-year-old golden retriever, Hank, does a 35-minute workout, eats breakfast and then heads to the rink a short distance from the Saint John River. On non-game days he heads home around 7 p.m. On game days, it is much later.
He has had invitations to coach elsewhere, including in the NHL.
“There are different opportunities that present themselves but sometimes the grass isn’t always greener or longer,” MacDougall says. “When I got the job at UNB I said, ‘This is my NHL.’
“My philosophy is kind of to have a servant mentality, to serve my players and make this the best experience of their lives. Every place I have coached I have enjoyed making a difference with the team and the community as well.”
MacDougall calls out drills at practice. He has been the architect of the school's success on the ice in 24 years as coach, leading the Varsity Reds to 16 consecutive Atlantic University Sport regular-season titles, five successive league championships and 18 overall.Chris Donovan/The Globe and Mail
He grew up in a place without too many amenities but it did have a hockey rink.
“It was kind of like a second home to me,” MacDougall says. “My dad enjoyed the rink and he played lots of hockey so from five or six years old I would just follow him to his games and be there basically all of the time.”
He drew inspiration from his youngest sister, Kathryn, who played for Canada’s women’s field-hockey team in Seoul, South Korea, at the 1988 Olympics. That is the year that Ben Johnson won the 100 metres only to lose his gold medal because of a doping violation.
“I always admired her for her work ethic, dedication and discipline, and because we come from a little village and she made it to the Olympics,” MacDougall says. “My dad and grandparents also all had tremendous work ethics. You don’t realize it at the time but their legacy lives on.”
Before he was hired at UNB in his third attempt, MacDougall had an impressive career in Western Canada. At one point he coached the OCN Blizzard of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League for three seasons, the last of which the Blizzard went 53-7-1 and won the league championship.
The team, from the Opaskwayak Cree Nation, included Jordin and Terence Tootoo.
“It was neat to coach a native-only team and have them do so well,” MacDougall says. “There was so much pride in the community. It revolved around the Blizzard. If we won on the weekend everyone was just so happy. It’s neat to have that kind of impact.”
MacDougall served as the head coach of Team Canada’s gold-medal winners last year at the World University Winter Games, in Lake Placid, N.Y., and in 2022 led Saint John to the Memorial Cup title.
That year, he was hired after the Sea Dogs lost in the QMJHL playoffs. The team still made the Memorial Cup, however, because Saint John was the host. The Sea Dogs selected him over a number of candidates, including some former NHL head coaches. He was the only applicant who had not coached in the NHL.
He went to Saint John and was interviewed one evening by Trevor Georgie, who was then the Sea Dogs general manager. They talked for four hours – until 2:30 a.m. – and before he left MacDougall asked to see the team’s dressing room.
“We went into the room and he began walking around visualizing giving a speech to the group,” says Georgie, who is now Saint John’s president and chief executive officer. “It was certainly funny to see at that point of the night, but he walked over to me and said with great confidence, ‘I can give a speech here. I can capture their hearts.’”
MacDougall got the job and the team went 3-0-1 to win the Memorial Cup.
“He was exceptional,” Georgie says. “He did exactly what he and players who played for him said he would do. He captured their hearts, inspired them, had them working the hardest they have ever worked, and had fun along the way.
“I saw such range in his work: He put our team through an intense circuit one day after practice and the next day was sweeping the parking lot ahead of an outdoor workout. He was in it with us as a team. I love Gardiner.”
The Reds have 20 players back from last year’s squad and have been ranked No. 1 in the country in every U Sports poll. They outscored opponents 172-47, led Atlantic University Sport teams in 17 categories and had six players finish in the top 10 in scoring. They scored eight goals five times and nine twice.
Their first-round opponent, Saint Mary’s, went 15-14-1 during the regular season and lost all five of its meetings with UNB. Three were decided by one goal, however.
“A good scare is better than a bad loss,” MacDougall says.
He works out of a tiny, cramped office in the basement at the Aitken University Centre. Family photos abound. There is also a picture of him taken with Willie O’Ree, another with Gary Bettman and one of him between the Tootoos.
In the corridor outside his office the walls are covered with photos and mementoes from UNB hockey. Those walls were bare when he took over but he wanted to inspire his players.
“We have phenomenal leadership and coaches,” says Isaac Nurse, a fourth-year, 24-year-old defenceman. He is Sarah Nurse’s baby brother. “Every day they want you to be better than the day before.
“Gardiner is easily one of the best coaches I have ever had. He is a ball of energy from dawn to dusk.”
MacDougall is happy where he is. He is winning and brings Hank and his water bowl with him into the weight room when he works out.
“For me, it always comes back to the love of the game,” MacDougall says. “I am really fortunate to have a tremendous, flexible wife who has allowed me to pursue my dream, and support from my family as well. The rink becomes your second home and the team becomes your second family.
“People ask me, ‘Do you love winning or do you absolutely hate losing?’ I think you need a little bit of both. But the reason I do this is because you feel that you are a person that makes a difference. That’s why we are all here. It’s as simple as that.”